


The Past Emulates Itself

by Aquelon



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft MyStreet, Minecraft diaries - Fandom, aphmau - Fandom
Genre: Diaries tags used as well as MS ones, Gen, I don't think that's how you spell Ro'Maeve but I could be wrong, Implied/Referenced Crossovers, Spooky themes, Though they don't apply as such, Very clearly inspired by the fact that Minecraft Diaries The Reprise just came out!!!, Where applicable and for search purposes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 07:46:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19246879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquelon/pseuds/Aquelon
Summary: It was a pleasant spring Friday afternoon, which made it all the worse that Aphmau had an after-school detention that day.~~~And all the worse that something very strange indeed happened during that day.





	The Past Emulates Itself

**Author's Note:**

> MINECRAFT DIARIES HELL YEAH! TIME TO MAKE SOME FRICKING **CONTENT**!!!!!!!
> 
> I wrote this by sitting down and being like, someone needs to make some CONTENT for the Diaries episode that just happened, and then making this content. It just sort of happened.

It was a pleasant spring Friday afternoon, which made it all the worse that Aphmau had an after-school detention that day.  She made her way into Ms. Hyria’s classroom and, noticing Emmalyn’s sharp glare, decided to take the seat as far away from her as possible.

Before she could make her way across the classroom, two other kids that she recognized as Garroth and Zenix burst into the room, Zenix still arguing loudly with Ms. Hyria.

“For the last time, we didn’t do it!”

Ms. Hyria’s voice was calm and soft, as always.  “I am not the one who gave you detention, Zenix.  I know the system isn’t great, and I encourage you to take it up with the office afterwards.”

“That doesn’t mean anything!”

“What’d you do?” Aphmau whispered in Garroth’s direction as Zenix continued to rage.

“The principal thinks we set the portables on fire,” Garroth whispered back.

Everyone in the school had heard about that.  “That was you?!”

“No!” replied Garroth.  “What did you do?  And why do you have a giant bruise on your face; are you okay?”

“I… set Emmalyn’s notebook on fire.”  Aphmau rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.  “She punched me in the face.”

“Don’t point in my direction like that!” Emmalyn called from across the room.

“Don’t tell Zenix that,” Garroth advised Aphmau.  “He’s been looking for a way to pin the blame on someone else.”  He looked around the room.  “Hey!  Vylad, little bro!”

Vylad, sitting in the back corner of the room, looked a bit self-conscious at being called out.  He looked up and then looked back down at his desk.

“He’s probably here for skipping all his classes again,” Garroth told Aphmau.  “Anyway, I should go get a seat.”

“Same.”  Aphmau made her way to the place she’d picked out and sat down.  Garroth also picked out a seat, and Zenix, finally done with arguing, stomped over to the chair next to Garroth.

As Aphmau went to pull some work out of her book bag, a girl she’d seen around the school but never really talked to slid into the seat next to her.  She had long, curly brown hair, green eyes, and a vaguely southern accent.  “Hey there, it’s nice to meet ya.  My name’s Donna!”

“I’m Aphmau.”  Aphmau pulled some schoolwork onto her desk, then looked up at Ms. Hyria.

Ms. Hyria was just finishing the attendance.  As she evidently scanned the list of students, an expression crossed her face that Aphmau couldn’t distinguish, but it looked almost worried.  Aphmau looked around the room as well.

The only students in the room were herself, Donna, Garroth and Zenix, Vylad, and Emmalyn.  It didn’t seem like there was anything to worry about, but when Ms. Hyria spoke, Aphmau could just barely hear concern in her voice, and Ms. Hyria almost never got worried.  “Everyone, work on any assignments you have.”

“Does it sound like she’s worried to you?” Aphmau whispered to Donna.

“Now that you mention it…” Donna replied, “...maybe.  So, why are you here?”

“I set Emmalyn’s notebook on fire,” Aphmau explained, still awkwardly.  “How about you?”

“Cussed out my mom in front of like half the teachers.”  Donna looked sort of embarrassed, but mostly defiant.  “She deserves it.”

Despite Ms. Hyria’s concerns, detention passed normally.  Ms. Hyria spent the whole time mixing up some potions, which seemed like she was also doing work, but Aphmau was beginning to suspect she felt something was off.

Finally, the end of detention came.  Zenix, his backpack half unzipped, was already standing by the door.  Garroth got up to join him, but then Ms. Hyria noticed the pair of them and said, “Sit down, please.”  The tension in her voice was subtle, but now that Aphmau had noticed it, it was unmistakable.

“Why?” Zenix demanded.  “Detention’s basically done and--”  Everyone in the classroom was looking at the confrontation.  He pushed the door open, as though to prove a point.

The hallway was dark, maybe darker than it should be at this time of evening.  Definitely darker than it should be, because the lights should be on.  The very end of the hallway was illuminated.

There was a person, silhouetted, standing in the hallway.  Someone tall and menacing and indistinct of shape.  As that clicked for everyone, Ms. Hyria closed the door forcefully.

“What was that?” Emmalyn asked, sounding equal parts panicked and curious.  Vylad stood up but stayed in the back corner.  Donna grabbed her book bag with both hands, looking maybe sort of ready to fight.  Zenix glared at the door, but Garroth put himself defensively between Zenix and the door.

Aphmau started to get a faint headache.  She wasn’t sure why, but it was unmistakable.  Ms. Hyria grabbed her staff from under her desk; it was a twisty thing, made of wood, with unusually shaped leaves poking off the top end and an orb, the same green as the leaves, floating in the middle of the crescent-shaped section at the top.

Emmalyn confronted Ms. Hyria.  “What’s going on?  Isn’t there a protocol in place to stop strangers from getting into the school?”

Vylad made his way to the front of the room and stood next to his brother.  His stance was more casual than Garroth’s defense position, but had a distinct impression of ‘don’t mess with me’.  Garroth adjusted his position so anything trying to reach Vylad would also have to get past him, and Vylad subtly sidestepped out of that.

“There is,” Ms. Hyria agreed with Emmalyn, “and that individual shouldn’t be here.”

Emmalyn paused.  “You know something, don’t you?”

“Are you okay?” Donna whispered to Aphmau.  She was standing up now, clutching her bag tightly.

Aphmau shook off the worst of the headache, finished packing up her bag, and stood up.  “I’m… fine.  I just have a bit of a headache, that’s all.”

Donna looked about to say something comforting, and at the front of the class Ms. Hyria looked ready to dodge Emmalyn’s question, when the doorknob rattled.  Everyone froze.

Ms. Hyria rushed over to the door, staff tightly in hand.  Emmalyn started to hurry after her, and then clearly realized the risks and redirected to a short distance behind Zenix.

Before Ms. Hyria could properly do anything, though, the doorknob twisted and the door creaked open.  Ms. Hyria pulled up something with her staff: a wall of force, or something.  Aphmau squinted to try to see what was on the other side.

It looked like a cloud of dark smoke, not even solid.  If she really squinted, it almost looked like it had sinister red eyes somewhere up there.  It spoke, and its voice was almost familiar, like a relative of someone she’d met, but distorted and maybe bass boosted:  **“There is no point in this defence, Hyria.”**

Ms. Hyria tightened her grip on the staff.  “They are children.  They are not the ones you know, and they do not even know of you.”

**“Then why this gathering?  And how about you?”**

“That the past emulates itself is an upsetting coincidence.  And the fact I found out even as much as I did, mostly luck.”

The force field started to shake, like ripples on the surface of water, like jelly being smacked.  Aphmau felt the headache start to return.

“What the hell is that thing?” Zenix asked, peeking out from behind Garroth.

“It-- I don’t know!-- Ms. Hyria, explain it!” Emmalyn shouted.

The focus of the red eyes travelled from Ms. Hyria to Zenix, to Emmalyn, and then all the way to the end of the classroom where Aphmau felt them settle on her as whatever it was started  **laughing** , a sinister and harsh chuckle that would probably show up in Aphmau’s nightmares.  Ms. Hyria tensed up, a full force focused with the staff, and energy started to ball up on the tip of the staff as the force field burst like a balloon.

Everything went white.

Aphmau woke up lying face-first on the floor of her room.  She pushed herself up into a sitting position.

Her school bag was also smacked down on the floor, and early morning sunlight trickled in through the window.  She was still wearing her school uniform, which she’d been wearing yesterday.  She could hear her mom starting on breakfast downstairs.

She got up in a hurry.  Maybe one of the others would have some idea what was going on last night.  She made her way down the stairs.

“Hey mom, I’m going to, um, to go for a walk real quick, okay?  Be right back!”

Her mom looked up from the eggs she was cooking.  “You were half-asleep when you got home last night, are you sure?”

Aphmau left the house without waiting for direct permission.  “Bye mom!”  She started walking in the direction of the Ro’maeve house, because she knew the way there and wasn’t actively arguing with them.

Before she could get to the end of the block, though, a door slammed and she turned to see Emmalyn, also not changed out of her school uniform but now wearing a pink jacket over it, running over to her.

“I’m still angry at you,” Emmalyn said when she’d caught up, “but what the hell was that thing?”

“I don’t know,” Aphmau said.  “I’m going to go ask the Ro’maeves if they know anything.”  She turned to start walking away.

“I’m coming, too,” Emmalyn said firmly.  “Don’t think you can just leave me out of this.”  Then, more curiously, “Did you see the way it looked at you and Donna?”

Aphmau shuddered.  “Yeah.”

“But don’t think this means I’ve forgiven you for burning my notebook!”  Emmalyn made a point of trying to ignore Aphmau for the rest of the walk.

About halfway there, a voice she now recognized called out, “Hey, Aphmau!  And Emmalyn.”  Sure enough, Donna was sitting on a porch, looking out at the neighbourhood.

“Donna!”  Aphmau hurried over to the end of her driveway, while Emmalyn hung back kind of awkwardly.  “It’s great to see you.  Do you have any idea what was going on last night?”

“No clue.”  Donna stood up.  “Kinda thought I’d dreamed it.  So where are you two headed this morning?”

“I was--”

“WE were,” Emmalyn butted in.

“--going to go ask the Ro’maeves if they had any idea what was happening,” Aphmau told her.

“I’ll come with you.”  Donna opened the door of the house and called into it, “Michi, if mom asks, tell her I’m going on a walk with some friends!”

“Tell her yourself!” someone yelled from inside.

Donna shut the door.  “Let’s go.”

They made it to the Ro’maeve house without further incident.  Donna stared at it.  “Wow, that’s pretty big.”

“Yeah.”  Aphmau went up and rang the doorbell.

Vylad opened the door.  “Hey there, it’s you three.”

Aphmau didn’t want to waste time.  “We were wondering if--”

“Hold on,” Vylad said.  “Garroth!  Zenix!”

Garroth and Zenix peeked out of what Aphmau was fairly certain was the kitchen.  Garroth was also still wearing his school uniform, but with a grey hoodie over it, while Zenix had presumably already gotten dressed.  “Oh, hey,” Garroth said.

“The gang’s all here,” Zenix said.  “I’m assuming you’re also here to talk about last night?”

“Yeah,” said Aphmau.  “Do you guys have any idea?”

“I’ve read stories about ghosts and spectral beings,” said Emmalyn, “but none of them were described as quite that level of insubstantial and none of those stories could be proven, anyway.”

“I dunno,” said Zenix.  “I just know that it hated my fuckin’ guts or something.  And--” --he gestured in the general direction of Aphmau and Donna-- “--yours.”

“Do you have any scrap paper I could borrow?” Emmalyn asked Garroth and Vylad.  “I’d use my notebook, but SOMEONE--”  She trailed off threateningly.

“Yeah, check the living room,” Garroth said.  “It’s across the hall.”

Emmalyn hurried out of the room.

“Well, Ms. Hyria knew something about it,” Vylad said.

“Yeah!” Emmalyn called from the other room.  “She did!”

“What did she say to it?” Garroth asked.  “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Something about the past?” Donna said.  “And something about knowing stuff, or remembering stuff…”

“She called us children, I’m pretty sure,” Zenix said sulkily.

“We kind of are,” said Garroth.

“Shut up.”

Emmalyn rushed back into the room, holding some paper and a pen.  She started scribbling down notes.  “I think it was like, the past repeating itself, or emulating itself?”

“Yeah, something like that,” said Donna.

“It knew her name, it knew her,” Aphmau said.  And then, giving voice to the sinking feeling in her gut, “It knew us.”

Vylad nodded in response.

“Wait, instead of wondering what she said, why don’t we just call her and ask her?” Garroth said.

“Do you have her number?” Donna asked.

“She’s Lucinda’s mom,” Garroth pointed out, “and I had a science project with Lucinda once!”  He grabbed the phone that was on one of the counters and punched in the numbers, then set it to speakerphone.

The phone rang for long enough that Aphmau started to suspect Lucinda wouldn’t pick up.

“It IS still early in the morning,” Emmalyn pointed out in the awkward silence.

Finally, just before the phone would’ve gone to speakerphone, someone on the other end picked up.  “Hello?”  Lucinda sounded tired.  “Garroth, what are you doing calling here so early?”

“We need to speak to your mom,” Garroth said.

“Why would you need to speak to my mom?”

“Some weird stuff happened last night when she had us for detention,” Garroth explained.

“Some really weird stuff!” Zenix added.

“And she knew something,” Emmalyn blurted out.

“What-- what kind of weird stuff?”  Lucinda was starting to sound worried.

“There was some kinda… smoke monster?” said Donna.

“It talked, and she said something about history repeating itself, or something,” said Garroth.  “She did some magic to get rid of it or something?”

“It knew us,” Aphmau repeated.

“Well, my mom’s not here right now!” Lucinda said, now sounding positively freaked out.  “She didn’t show up at home last night after work!  I assumed she was just doing that like she does sometimes, but you’re saying there was some magic monster?”

“Seemed like it,” said Vylad.

“I’ll do some research on it, maybe… I don’t know, maybe she has notes on it… call me back if you find anything out!”  There was a click. Lucinda must have hung up.

“That’s not good,” Donna said.

“There’s got to be an explanation for this that doesn’t involve Ms. Hyria being killed by a… whatever that thing was,” Garroth said, sounding worried.

“Wait, crap,” said Aphmau, “speaking of parents, my mom’s probably going to be worried if I don’t head home soon.  I’ll try to be back over later, though!”

“Alright, see you later,” said Garroth.

“Make sure to come back,” said Zenix.  “You’re part of this mess too.”

Aphmau got up and started to head to the door, thoughts racing-- was Ms. Hyria okay?  What did that thing want, and why did it glare at her like that?-- but then she tripped over her own chair and wound up lying uncomfortably on the floor.  Ouch.

“You okay?” Garroth asked.

“I’m fine.”  Aphmau disentangled herself from the chair.

“Need a hand?” Donna asked, offering hers.

“Sure.”  Aphmau took it, and as she started pulling herself up with Donna’s help, her sleeve slid down her arm and Donna gasped.

“Your arm!”

“What?”  Aphmau asked.

“What is it?” asked Emmalyn.

“Now that you mention it,” Donna slightly cupped Aphmau’s face in her hands, tilting it, looking at something that was very nearly eye contact, “those don’t look like eyebags.”

“Hey!”  Aphmau pulled away from her.

“Do you think it has something to do with what happened at detention?” Vylad asked.

“Is something wrong?” asked Garroth.

“What are you all looking at?”  Aphmau demanded.  She looked down at her arm, rolled her sleeve back up, and did a double take.

There were two almost crescent-shaped markings-- bruises? burns? scars?  She’d say birthmarks, but they weren’t there yesterday-- curving across the outside of her arm.  They didn’t hurt, but something about them made them feel weird.  Maybe the best word was otherworldly.

A sinking feeling developed in Aphmau’s gut that whatever had happened that evening, nothing would ever be quite the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Hyria definitely knows something but not like, in detail.  
> I probably won't write more for this specific story but this general concept is something I will inevitably riff off of in the future.


End file.
